Wrap-around carriers are normally designed to accommodate the size and shape of the particular article to be packaged. In the case of beverage bottles, cutouts are conventionally provided in the side panels to allow the bottom or heel portion of the bottles to extend out beyond the side panel. Contact between the side edges of the cutouts and the bottles holds the lower portions of the bottles in place within the carrier to prevent the bottom from moving and falling out of the package. Since conventionally shaped bottles have bottom portions which are circular in cross section, the relationship between the bottle and the cutout remains the same regardless of which portion of the bottle is facing toward the cutout. The orientation of the bottles within the carrier at the time of packaging and during shipping is therefore not a consideration in designing the cutouts.
A problem arises when the bottle heels have varying contours of irregular shape. One such type of beverage bottle is formed of plastic and has a decorative bottom portion of petaloid shape. These bottles have support feet which are regularly spaced from each other about the periphery of the bottle. The sides of the support feet as well as the lower surface of the feet terminate at a point near the center of the bottom of the bottle, which is slightly higher than the bottom support surfaces of the feet. Thus when one views the bottom of the bottle, as in a plan view, the appearance of the bottom face is petaloid in nature, with the center area appearing to form the center of a flower and the support feet the petals.
Since the heel portions of petaloid bottles are not uniform, being broken up by the spaced support feet, the normal rotation of the bottles as they are moved into place for packaging makes it impossible to predict the exact portion of the heel which will be presented to a cutout at the time the carrier wrap is applied. Further, even if it were possible to orient the bottles so that the cutouts are able to fit the precise shape of the heel design presented at the time of packaging, rotational movement of the bottles in the package during shipping would tend to misalign the heel portions with the cutouts, rendering the cutouts ineffective. Aggravating the problem is the fact that petaloid bottles are sometimes formed with four support feet and sometimes with five, which would seem to require a different cutout for each type of bottle.
It would obviously be highly desirable to be able to lock petaloid shaped bottles in wrap-around carriers by means of a heel cutout capable of accommodating all the various configurations which such bottles are capable of presenting to the cutout. Furthermore, the means by which this is accomplished should not be expensive or require basic new machinery designs to carry out the packaging process.